'Terror prank' passenger let off by police with warning

Even as police initially decided to arrest a passenger at the Kolkata Airport on Monday after he put up a social media post from the aircraft and threatened to hijack it, police later let him off with a stern warning.

“During interrogation, it was found that the passenger identified as Yogvedant Poddar was just joking with his friends on an instant messaging application and did not mean any harm. We had let him off with a warning,” a senior police official told DH.

Poddar was detained on Monday morning after another passenger overheard him saying during a chat on an instant messaging platform that he will hijack and blow up the plane with a bomb.

According to a statement issued by the Kolkata Airport authorities, a co-passenger alerted the crew member who then informed the CISF.

The passenger was then detained by local police and grilled for several hours.